Conventional excavating machines typically include a main frame or platform which may be trained about a vertical axis, a boom mounted on such a frame for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis, a hydraulic cylinder assembly interconnecting the frame and the boom for pivoting the boom, a dipper stick pivotally connected to the free end of the boom for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis and a hydraulic cylinder assembly operatively interconnecting the boom and dipper stick for pivoting the dipper stick. The free end of the dipper stick is provided with a connecting pin for pivotally connecting an implement such as an excavating bucket thereon. Such implement normally is pivoted about the axis of its pivotal connection with the dipper stick by means of an assembly including a pair of support, links pivotally connected to the dipper stick at a short distance of the connecting pin for the implement, a hydraulic cylinder assembly operatively interconnected between the dipper stick and a connecting pin pivotally connected to the free ends of the support links and a pair of tilt links pivotally connected at one set of ends thereof to the connecting pin provided at the free ends of the support links and pivotally connected at the other ends thereof to the implement.
Often, machines of the type described are provided with a dedicated implement such as an excavating bucket. Many of such machines, however, may be provided with coupler assemblies mountable on the dipper stick and tilt links which are adapted to detachably connect various types of implements to the dipper stick of the machine. Such coupler assemblies may be large and bulky adding additional mass to the front end of the machine which is undesirable in that it not only diminishes the payload of the machine but requires more energy to operate. Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved coupler assembly mountable on the dipper stick of the type of machine described for detachably coupling a variety of implements having pairs of parallel, spaced mounting pins, which is simple in design, comparatively lightweight, easy to mount on the dipper stick of the machine and simple to use in attaching and detaching an implement to and from the dipper stick.